Guitar Spotlight: Gibson Les Paul Classic

Posted by The Guide in Les Paul Guitars

The Gibson Les Paul Classic is the offspring of the Les Paul Custom and Les Paul Standard. With parents like that, you know this child is a winner. This axe is not quite as high up on the food chain, so you’ll pay less for this one than top end Gibbys.

Vintage Stylings + Modern Updates

When it comes to looks on the Gibson Les Paul Classic, you get some cool vintage stylings: amber top-hat knobs, green tuning keys, true ’60s slim-tapered neck, plain cream pickguard, and trapezoid fretboard inlays. The Classic comes with Nickel hardware on all colors except black; that one comes with gold hardware (nice!).

The modern touch comes into play with the hot pickups, making this not quite your Father’s LP.

My Review of the Gibson Les Paul Classic

Hot hot hot. These pickups are high output Son, watch out.  While this usually lends itself to rock music, you can lower the pickups a little if you want a more mellow tone. In fact, you can even adjust the individual pole for each string if you want to get into mesquito brain surgery here.

The advantage of hot pickups? You will really cut through in the live mix.Les Pauls are notorious for being a bit “muddy,” but these pickups cut enough to leave that complaint in the dirt. The Classic is loaded with the 496R Hot Ceramic pickup in the neck position, and the 500T Super Ceramic in the bridge position. These pickups aren’t the “shniy” type, and I like the change.

The ’60s slim-tapered neck is very fast, and makes for easy play on those fast runs. Some LP necks feel like a baseball bat, so this ultra-slim neck is a refreshing change.

This guitar is not really suited for funk, but if you’re looking at a Les Paul you probably not looking to play much funk anyway.

Bottom Line? I find the Classic to be a nice combination of features on the Les Paul… a killer combo of old-school styling with modern pickups.

Tags: Les Paul Guitars